A typical conventional chain guide for an automobile engine, is in the form of a pivoted lever in which a shoe, in the form of a convex strip of synthetic resin, is fitted to an aluminum base and both the shoe and the base have proximal end portions that receive a common shaft on which the lever is pivoted. An example of such a chain guide is described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. Hei. 10-292855.
In the conventional tensioner lever, after the resin shoe is fitted to the base, the proximal end portions of the shoe and base must both be connected to the common shaft on which they are pivoted, and it is their connection to the common shaft that prevents them from becoming disconnected from each other. Thus, assembly and installation of the conventional tensioner require the difficult step of maintaining openings of the shoe and base in alignment while fitting the shoe and base onto a common pivoting shaft. A further problem is that a locking portion, which prevents the shoe from floating up with respect to the base, must be sufficiently long to take into account the influence of thermal expansion and shrinkage, and consequently care must be taken in production of the tensioner lever to ensure high accuracy in the sizes of the components, especially at the location of the locking portion.
Accordingly, an object of the invention is to provide a chain guide for use in an engine, which provides for smooth sliding contact with a transmission chain, in which the requirement for size accuracy in the production of the parts is relaxed, and in which mounting of the shoe onto the base is made easy, while unintended disconnection of the shoe from the base, both during assembly, and during use of the chain guide, is reliably prevented.